Alpha's Regret: His Wrongful Rejection

“Thanks,” I say. As we approach Leith, he straightens, still kneeling over Bram. He throws his head back, gasping for breath. The strands of his hair not coated in blood shine golden in the late afternoon sun. A wide, mad smile, gleaming as white as bone, breaks across his face. “Oh god,” Tandie mutters, horrified….

Leith swings a leg over the bench and sits down at our table without invitation, leaving Tandie standing. I gesture to the free seat next to me, and she takes it, giving Alec a wide berth as she circles around. Close up, I see there’s a clammy sheen to her skin. She doesn’t look well….

Grumbling and pissy and reeking of aggression, but there, dogging my steps. “Damn it, Flora, stop for a second, won’t you.” I keep marching. “Flora, I’m warning you.” I ignore him. He growls, and all of a sudden, I’m snatched off my feet and held in the air, my toes dangling. His wolf growls, and…

I nod as much as I can. He grunts. “Good. I wasn’t sure.” I wriggle until his hand gives, and I can look him in the face. I’m not sure what I see there that makes my brain take the leap, but all of a sudden, puzzle pieces clink into place, and it’s impossible, but—…

“I made her a little sling. I needed my hands for the other stuff.” Harriet’s sides rise and fall with the slower rhythm of deep sleep, but her pink nose and white whiskers still quiver. I don’t know what to say. I thought you were using me, and I went along with it because my…

“Didn’t I say?” “No. You just said you’d be back.” Even though we’re alone, we’re whispering. “I am back,” he says. I growl. “You have to communicate better. If we’re going to be together.” As if I’ve confounded him, he stares. Blinks. And then he grabs me, hoists me onto the table, and wrangles my…

Of course he did. How would he know when to nod at me if he wasn’t watching? And he wanted to see my body. Why else would he tell me to take off my shirt? Why would he always be pushing my hair back when it fell in my face? Why did I not understand…

I think back, trying to do the math, to remember when Christie McKay had Wally, and how old he would’ve been at midsummer. It takes a minute, but I figure it out. “That was when you were with Isla Sinclair.” His chest rumbles kind of ominously. I elbow him in the belly. “You were with…

Cadoc’s lip lifts in the slightest of smirks. His mate steps forward, her arms wound around her massive belly like a winch. “Hey, Flora,” she says. “Oh.” Flora blinks, confused, as her roll is slowed. “Hi, Rosie. Whoa. Baby.” Rosie rubs her belly like a crystal ball. “I know, right?” “Congratulations. That’s so cool.” Her…

So after I was politely asked to stay closer to the den until Alec got the pipes fixed, Nia volunteered to take me “marshalling.” This entailed hunting down folks and interrogating them about things they haven’t done yet. The high-ranking folks from Moon Lake didn’t like being called on the carpet, but at least they…